How to Recycle Aircraft De-Icing Fluid

All planes must be deiced prior to departure during winter months.

Hundreds of thousands of people travel on airplanes every day in the United States in all types of weather conditions. Of course, when weather is extreme, airports close and flights are canceled. Still, planes take off when it rains or snows. In 2004, the National Transportation Safety Board publicized research that shows even the smallest amount of ice on an airplane can degrade flight performance and cause unnecessary accidents. Because of this, airplanes undergo a deicing procedure before every flight in the United States during the winter months. The fluid used to deice planes is considered hazardous waste and must be disposed of properly.

Instructions

1. Hire a company to clean up the airplane deicing fluid, or ADF, from the tarmac once the plane has been deiced. The process requires spraying ADF all over a plane before it takes off. The leftover ADF ends up on the ground, which can contaminate groundwater supplies by depleting the water of oxygen. Companies specialize in using large vehicles to remove the ADF from the tarmac so it doesn't have time to contaminate groundwater.

2. Send the company trucks back to the plant where the ADF is recycled. The workers from the company empty the ADF from storage trucks into large containers where the water, ice and other liquids that mix with the ADF during the deicing process are removed from the ADF.

3. Reuse the ADF once the recycling company brings it back after cleaning it up and removing excess water from the fluid. This process saves airports millions of dollars every year as recycled ADF is reused to deice planes.

References

• "Stormwater"; Aircraft Deicing Fluid: The Recycling Solution; David C. Richardson; March-April 2008